Portrait Of A Lady

Lessons from the past have taught actress, mom, and significant other Sarah Lahbati when to take charge (and when to take it easy) in work, life, and love.

- Joy Rojas

She returns to Metro as a domestic diva, reinventing motherhood with effortless grace and style clad in couture gowns and party frocks Reruns of It Takes Gutz to be a Gutierrez were airing on the TV in the wee hours of the morning leading up to Sarah Lahbati’s cover shoot. Touted as the local version of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Gutz kept viewers up to speed on the goings-on of Philippine cinema’s famous family through one unscripted slice-of-life episode after another. There was Raymond Gutierrez’s major weight loss reveal and the svelte event host showing up on time for his gym workout; actress Ruffa Gutierrez’s plan to address a baffling illness with a spiritista; talent manager and matriarch Annabelle Rama’s penchant for taking a ferry (as opposed to a plane); and Sarah with her partner, actor Richard Gutierrez, and their son Zion, then four, bonding in an inflatable playground before deciding to go for popcorn.

“Oh my God. Cringe,” she says sheepishly of the series whose replays remind her of her awkward past. “Like my blond-hair days and weird stuff that happened,” she offers with a laugh. While she appears sociable on reality TV, the real-life Sarah—looking freckle-faced fresh and beautiful despite under-eye gel patches, no makeup, and a pre-shoot ensemble of jeans with a hotel bathrobe and slippers—is the epitome of subdued and “chill,” a word she uses often to describe herself and how she wants things to be. (“Let’s make it chill,” she says of the interview.)